Terrier Training

Dawn Antoniak-Mitchell with one of her dogs, Ember.Click on photo for larger image.

A lot of my students who'd come to class with a terrier or a terrier mix would inevitable ask, "Why doesn't my terrier behave like my neighbour's Golden Retriever or the Labrador I had as a kid?."

- Dawn Antoniak-Mitchell

Dawn is a life-long dog lover and has been training dog for nearly 25 years. You can hear Dawn in this show talking about her book Terrier-Centric Dog Training - From Tenacious to Tremendous. Dawn has successfully trained several breeds including Cocker Spaniels, Dalmatians, Curly-Coated Retrievers, Jack Russell Terriers, and a Border Collie in multiple venues to class wins and titles including obedience, tracking, rally obedience, agility, go-to-ground and open terrier trial competitions. She has taken dogs of several breeds to multiple high-in-trial obedience trial wins, national rankings in obedience and agility, and also trained the first Non-Sporting breed and first Dalmatian to earn a VCD title at any level, the first Curly-Coated Retriever to earn an AKC rally title as well as the first to earn all three rally obedience titles, and the first Parson (Jack) Russell Terrier to earn a rally obedience title.

In this interview Dawn talks about the jobs terriers were bred to do, and the instincts this leaves our terriers and terrier mixes with. Dawn knows the realities - the challenges and this joys -of life with a terrier, and she has useful, relevant advice for those struggling to live in harmony with their terrier. You can find out more about Dawn at her BonaFide Dog Academy website and if you would like to put a question to Dawn she welcomes inquiries at her email address, and from 1st-15th June you can access her via the online Dog Read book club where she is the featured author for the first half of the month.

You can also hear Dawn's advice on pet estate planning in Episode 53 of DogCast Radio, and in Episode 59 you can listen to Dawn's doorbell manner training advice.

Terrier Training

In Treibball the
dog uses its nose or shoulders to
push 8 large exercise balls into a goal. It's a good way to use
teamwork with your dog and it uses classics obedience and herding
cues.

- Sarah Hursthouse

In Episode 140 of DogCast Radio, we heard from Sandi Pensinger about Treibball, and the dog sport has arrived in the UK. Trainers around the country are beginning to offer classes and workshops in this herding sport, where dogs use their nose or shoulders to push 8 large exercise/yoga balls into a goal where their handler is standing. Herding breeds may have an advantage with this activity, although it can be a challenge to control their instincts, and get them to carry out behaviours on command only, but almost any dog (over the age of 6 months old) can have a go.

In this interview you can hear Sarah Hursthouse from Dogskool, talk about what Treibball is and how she is offering classes in Cheshire, UK. Sarah talks about the skills a dog needs to participate, and the kinds of dogs and handlers this will suit. To find out more about Sarah visit her Dogskool website, and for more information about Treibball in the UK, visit the British Treibball Club or check out their Facebook page.

News

In the DogCast Radio News Kate and Nick have the stories of the Labrador who braved a busy road to get help for her owner who had crashed her car, the scientific evidence behind not buying dogs from pet shops, how dog theft Internet hoaxes are wasting time that could be spent searching for genuinely lost or stolen dogs, and two rescue dogs who had happy endings thanks to luck - and dog rescuers - being on their side.